New Arrivals, a carnivàle fanfic

DISCLAIMER: Carnivale and its canon characters are the property of HBO and the show's producers; no copyright infringement is intended.

"Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be." - The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.

"Can I have your attention, folks?" As he spoke, Ben realized clearing his throat would have sufficed. All eyes in the Ten-In-One were already riveted on him, and at the first sound he made, the crowd fell unnaturally silent.

Jeez. After months o' doin' this, the effect I have on people still gives me the willies.

"What I'm gonna ask you may seem kinda funny," he told them, "considerin' why we're all here. But...here goes. Is there a doctor in the house?"

That produced the expected wave of titters.

And no doctor.

Lila, standing beside him onstage, said peevishly, "I thought you always had a town doctor here for these shows?"

Ignoring the implication of the word "shows," he told her, "Normally, we do. Doc Sturdevant was here earlier, to help us pick the cases most in need o' healin'. But he had to leave 'cause o' plans with his family." Sighing, he observed, "I wish Sofie's labor had started an hour earlier."

"Babies got a way o' comin' on their own timetable, not anyone else's."

"We can send someone to ask if there's a doctor in the bigger crowd millin' around outside -"

"I'd advise against that," Samson said bluntly. Ben had just introduced him and Ruthie, and they were still onstage. "Guys who ain't doctors would claim they are, just tryin' to get further in an' see what's goin' on. Others would see some 'doctor' they knew was phony bein' admitted, an' complain about favoritism. Our guards have a hard enough time keepin' order out there as it is." Glowering at Lila, he said, "I remember a half-dozen carny women givin' birth over the years, without no outside help! An' it seems to me you were the midwife."

"That's true, sort of," Lila acknowledged. "But I ain't never done it alone."

Ben guessed what was coming. And his guess was proven correct when Ruthie gave a disgusted snort. "All right," she said grudgingly, "I'll pitch in. I ain't happy 'bout Sofie havin' Clayton Jones' kid, but I don't want no harm to come to either o' them."

Ben gave her hand a grateful squeeze. "Problem taken care of!" he told the crowd. "Seems it don't require a professional after all."

As the women left, he belatedly wondered whether Libby, standing in the wings, had heard what they were saying. A choked sob gave him his answer, and he turned in time to see her flee.

But close on her heels - fortunately, if only for Ben's peace of mind - was her mother.

As Ben performed seven successful healings, his thoughts strayed repeatedly to Sofie - and to Lila, who'd befriended her in recent months.

I've never understood why Lila stayed with Carnivale, feelin' the way she does 'bout Samson an' me. Maybe just 'cause she thinks it aggravates me to hafta keep lookin' at that trailer with Lodz's mug painted on it?

However she found out I killed him, I s'pose she's told Sofie. I wonder if Sofie believes it?

Hell, why should I care what Sofie thinks o' me?

Anyway, I'm glad Lila stayed. She ain't a bad person - she'd be shocked if she knew the things Lodz did. If she understood why I killed him.

He and Samson had discussed that, after he told Samson the whole story (which the carny boss had more or less put together on his own). Samson had suggested they tell Lila the truth. But Ben had refused. "Even assumin' she'd believe it, I don't want more people than absolutely necessary knowin' I can restore the dead to life. An' if we said Lodz tried to kill Ruthie an' the snakebite only made her ill, that wouldn't seem like grounds enough for killin' him."

Lila's takin' Sofie under her wing made these last months easier for the rest of us, he thought now, ruefully. We could stay up on our high horses, all virtuous an' disapprovin', 'cause we knew someone else was helpin' Sofie through the damn pregnancy.

But why does Sofie want to stay in a place where 'most everyone despises her? Only reason I can think of is that she really is the Omega, a Dark Avatar, an' she means to stick close to me. Hopin', at some point, to kill me.

So it may be good if she believes I killed Lodz. Let her know I ain't no pushover - an' some people I kill stay dead!

When the healing session ended, he was surprised to see Ruthie making her way through the crowd toward him.

"Over already? She's had it, an' the cleanup an' all is done?"

"Yep." Ruthie was scowling. "Easy birth, beautiful baby. I was even havin' good thoughts about it, for a while there."

Ben was mentally counting months. "Warn't it a little early?"

"Matter of a few weeks," Ruthie said with a shrug. "Less'n a month, maybe. The baby seems strong, but he is small. That's why he popped out so easy."

"Oh - a boy?"

Ruthie nodded. "Yeah. An' that's why I stopped havin' good thoughts, when Sofie announced what she's namin' him. She said she wanted to name him for his father, but she knew 'Clayton Junior' wouldn't be in good taste, what with Jonesy havin' been Libby's husband. So guess what she came up with - what she pretended to believe was different enough to be in good taste? Clay!"

Ben's response was a string of words so tasteless that Ruthie, in her fifties, was hearing some of them for the first time.

Samson joined them, and gave his opinion of the name in terms as colorful as Ben's - which he'd undoubtedly heard. Ain't even bawlin' me out for usin' language unworthy o' the Apostle John, Ben thought with a wry smile.

The three of them lingered in the Ten-In-One until most of the crowd had dispersed, then made their way outside, absorbed in conversation about Sofie and her baby.

Absorbed, that is, until a haughty voice almost at Ben's shoulder said loudly, "Hawkins? Samson? I assume I still have a place with this carnival - despite your having made no effort to rescue me when I was kidnapped!"

All three of them spun around, exclaiming in shocked unison, "Lodz?"

The infamous "Professor," guided by a uniformed taxi driver, looked as dapper as ever: tailored suit, luxuriant gray hair, fashionable dark glasses, elegant cane. With a smug smile, he said, "Is that Ruthie's voice I hear? Still playing mother to young Hawkins? I thought you would have outgrown your need for that by now, boy!"

Ben made a quick decision. Keeping his own voice at the level of a whisper, he said firmly, "You're dead. A ghost. Begone!"

Lodz burst out laughing. His companion edged away from Ben, muttering, "What the hell are you on, mister?"

Ben gulped, then stretched out a hand to touch one of Lodz's. He encountered what felt like warm, solid flesh. My God. He's real!

A dozen carnies rushed to surround them. They all began asking questions at once, while Ben, Samson, and Ruthie - the only ones who'd been sure Lodz was dead - stood tongue-tied.

But Ben was already thinking, All right. I warn't prepared for this, but it's clear what happened. I restored Ruthie to life, an' some other Avatar restored Lodz. Justin...or maybe Sofie.

Whoever brought him back, dammit, Carnivale's stuck with him. We got no excuse for turnin' him away.

Lodz was regaling the carnies with the story of his "kidnapping." "I trust you remember the dancer Catalina? She and a dozen Mexican men carried me off, because a cult they belonged to - south of the border - wanted a psychic who wasn't a fraud. They held me against my will, yet treated me almost as a god! A fascinating experience, I assure you. I was with them for more than a year before I was able to escape. And then, given my blindness, it wasn't easy to find my way back to Carnivale.

"Where is my sweet Lila? I only came back because of her! If not for her, I would willingly have stayed with Catalina and her cult!"

Ben heard both Samson and Ruthie make rude noises, and he snickered. Guess the shock has worn off for them, too.

Then they heard a woman's shriek - a shriek of delight. Someone had alerted Lila, and she came running from Sofie's tent. She threw herself into Lodz's arms, and they kissed and embraced with the fervor of teenagers.

"Shit," Samson drawled, "take it inside yer damn trailer, will ya?"

A wickedly smiling Lodz disentangled himself from Lila just long enough to say, "Can I take that to mean 'Welcome home'?"

As the reunited lovers headed for the trailer - leaving a disgruntled Samson to pay the cabbie - Ben's keen ears caught Lila asking, "What really happened? What took you so long?"

"Sshh," Lodz replied. "All in good time, my dear - and in private!"

Four hours later, Ben and Samson were still discussing the day's events in the Management trailer. Samson was drinking heavily. Ben couldn't bring himself to drink in Belyakov's old quarters, but he was chain smoking.

Ruthie had left some time before, when a woebegone Gabriel came in search of her. "I've been lookin' everywhere for you, Mama..."

Recalling that, Samson said, "With everyone confused about Lodz, after all Lila's talk 'bout him bein' dead, I can imagine how mixed up poor Gabe must be."

Ben grunted. "I'm pretty mixed up myself. Lila knew Lodz was dead. An' yet, I swear she expected him to come back!"

As they were mulling that over, there was a soft tap on the door. "It's just me," Ruthie said as she let herself in.

To Ben's surprise, she didn't sit down. "I got news," she announced.

"Somethin' else has happened?"

"Yeah. Gabe was lookin' for me for a reason - someone had flagged him down an' asked him to." She took a deep breath. "Turns out I spoke too soon about everythin' bein' done with Sofie. She had another baby!"

Ben's cigarette fell out of his mouth. "Twins?"

Samson hiccuped.

"That's right, twins." Ruthie sounded dazed. "Sofie was as surprised as everyone else. A second boy...an' you won't believe what she named this one! Cloud."

Ben and Samson repeated in unison, "Cloud?" Ben continued, "What sort o' name is that?"

"I ain't never heard it used as a name," Ruthie said, somewhat unnecessarily. "Sofie told me she wanted somethin' that would sound like a good 'twin' name to go with 'Clay.' One syllable, an' the first two letters the same."

"But 'Clyde' or 'Claude' woulda worked for that," Samson pointed out.

"Clay an' Cloud," Ben murmured. For some reason, the names made him uneasy.

Samson asked, "Are they identical?"

Ruthie shook her head. "I thought at first they were, but then I noticed moles on their hips. They're actually mirror images."

"Mirror images," Ben echoed. What am I thinkin' of...like there's somethin' I should remember, an' I can't quite come up with it? Another woman named Sofie, or somethin' similar...mirror image twins...

If there's an Omega, there must o' been an Alpha. Avatars have always known that, but we figured it was the first-created o' the first male pair. What if the Alpha was a woman, like the Omega, an' she had a form o' the same name?

Another special Being, long ago, whose name was an earlier form o' "Sofie." That would tie in with the beliefs o' the -

Huh?

The word that had popped into his head was something like "Nostics." But he'd never heard such a word.

Not in this life.

He suppressed a shudder. "Hey, Samson. If you don't mind, I think I will have a swig o' that liquor."

The End